the Fall of the Fulcrum
by AliceTano
Summary: After her desperate duel with her former master, Ahsoka found herself stranded in the formidable planet Malachor. Determined to complete her redemption, to save the one she loved, Ahsoka ventured into a path that she and anyone else, even Vader, had never expected.
1. Chapter 1

"Go, take him back, and fulfill your destiny." The daughter smiled at Ahsoka for the last time, stroking her cheekbone. "You are blessed with the force, my child."

The water at her waist started to inundate her, rising at lightning speed. The emerald figure of the daughter expelled as the water in the temple engulfed Ahsoka's body, suffocating her and dragging her into darkness. She struggled to flail her arms to get to the surface of the water, but the liquid just continued to compress her and flood into her throat, until she completely gave up, drifting motionless in the dark.

Losing consciousness, she thought she was drowning to death, or maybe, maybe she was just in a coma, but that didn't make any difference, she was dead in her heart, there was no reason for her to live.

Anakin was dead, his lost padawan too.

Her twilight had come.

A droning abruptly disturbed her montrals. The sound was gradually amplified, getting clearer and clearer. It was no longer a sound, it was a voice, a whisper from the past.

"The force is strong with you, little one." A familiar voice echoed in the darkness.

Ahoska frowned, it was master Polon, in Shili, when she was still a child.

She remembered how he took her hand and brought her to Coruscant, where she began her irreversible destiny. She respected him as her father, but never did she expected that he could one day turn his back on her, only watching as she was shoved off the cliff…

"Appreciate your talent, I really, Miss Tano, ready for padawanhood, you are." A whimsical voice caused quivering of hate in Ahsoka's body. Master Yoda, a total liar. He decided to hand her to the corrupted republic court, he betrayed and spurned her, he took her away from her master, he ruined her live. Her hands turned into fists. The whole Jedi council was nothing but kriffing junk, they destroyed literally everything, she hated all of them except…

"Hey, snip." His gentle and witty voice struck her, his handsome, reassuring face flashed through her mind. Thousands of moment he was with her penetrated her heart.

He was the only one that stood firmly beside her, the only one that sincerely cared and protected her, the only one she was able to love, but now she had lost him, permanently.

The name she had been avoiding to mention or even hear well up her mouth, forcing her to shriek. Anakin, please, come back, please tell me that it is just a dream. I need you, it is all my fault.

But it was too late. The machine-like breathing again trapped her. The Sith Lord's indifferent words pulled her into nightmare.

"Then you will die."

"No, master, no!"

The droning of his lightsaber, the heat, her own screaming. She could still recall the agonizing pain at her chest where he stabbed at her without a second of hesitation, the way he amber eyes glared at her, as if he didn't know her at all, as if the more than two-year times they stayed together was nothing but a handful of ashes.

Let me die, let me burn into ashes too, there is no reason to live, and I may meet him there, in the afterlife.

"No, Ahsoka, no."The daughter's gentle murmur resonated in the gloom.

"You haven't finished the mission for you master. Bring him back, change him, and reach the balance of the force."

All of a sudden, her past, present, and future twirled around her, the cry of a baby, those endless different whispering, the figures she used to admire or hate, surrounded and flashed before her, so confusing that she felt dizzy. A strong beam of light pierced into the darkness and brought away her consciousness.

Her eyes fluttered open, gasping with shock. All of her clothes were soaked, not with water, but with cold sweat. Malachor's freezing breeze almost froze her damp suit. There was still faint pain at her chest, where no trace of fatal injuries except a subtle burn was found, but the rest of her body remained intact and flexible. After all, she was physically functional but mentally shattered, not knowing why or how she was still here, or what she should do next.

Stang, the damned thing in Mortis happened again.

She wiggled her body to check if it was real after all, only to touch two long and slender cylinders at the two different sides of her waist.

Her lightsabers.

There was no way the two weapons could be automatically laid so precisely symmetrical around her, especially when she lost them so separately during her vicious duel with her former master and when the temple just experienced a huge explosion which messed almost everything up. Someone must gather them after the explosion and put them around her ceremonially.

Vader.

She could imagine Vader gently laid her on the ground, carefully settled her two lightsabers besides her, and left without a sound, as if he didn't want to bother her in her sleep.

Hope arose within her. He still cared about her, no, not cared, but felt guilty. Part of Anakin still remained in him. Yes, she would still bring Anakin back, there was still humanity behind the disfigured face underneath the horrible mask.

This thought forced her to face the reality that she was in a difficult dilemma. She may go back to the ghost crew, again become the "fulcrum" of the rebels, and contemplate a better time for revenging on Anakin, but after she recognized the familiar face behind the mask, she had already associated Vader so close with Anakin that she was convinced that they were essentially the same person. 17 years, yes, she had dedicated herself unconditionally to an organization that only brought endless troubles to the man she loved for a whole kriffing 17 years. It was utterly ridiculous that what she once regarded as a revenge for her beloved master, eventually only turned out to be a devastating harm for him.

Shame and guilt filled her heart and blazed up her cheek. She buried her face with her hands as she attempted to fight back the mock in her head. Ahsoka, you are such a damned fool, you are ruining literally everything…

No, she could not kill Vader, nor could she still be part of the rebels, which was only hurting the one she loved. She would not leave and abandon him, like what she did 17 years ago.

But what would she do?

Find him. The passionate voice within her mind said. Leave the rebels, and stay with him instead., before it's too late, you still have chance to compensate him for hurting him so much.

She snapped her rigid fingers and attached her lightsabers back to her waistband. Time to get out of this hellhole. She was determined to pay off the debt she had been in for almost 20 years.

She was still in the debris of the temple, where was cold and pitch-dark. A little strand of light casted into the darkness through the chasm, indicating the entrance to the ground. Climbing up all the rock and fragmental granite was proven to be extremely difficult for her with her limp limbs and semi-conscious mind. As she slowly crawled out for what seemed to be a lifetime, the light got more and more fierce and almost blinded her. She wondered if she could suddenly lost grip on the crack she dug her bleeding fingers in because she repeatedly felt like she is passing out, with pain and dizziness.

You are almost there, just a few inches, just one more second of pain. Move, come on, padawan of the chosen one, make your master proud of you.

When her thumb touched the flat and smooth ground instead of the steep and rugged rock surface, she knew she was there at last, out of the gloom, back into the bright, a temporary escape from death.

With the force, Ahsoka propelled herself up and thrusted her fingers into the earth, scrambling away from the verge at an excruciatingly slow pace. As she finally withdrew her foot from the edge, Ahsoka collapsed on the ground and panted frantically. The warm light that surrounded her, the fresh air that voraciously pumped into her burning lungs, the ecstasy of being still alive, all together sent a strange but familiar feeling of exhilaration all over her trembling body. She clapped her torn and bloody fingers over her face and began to weep.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Opps! I just come to realize that I forgot to put AN in the last chapter. Still, I really feel insecure cuz my grammar truly stinks when I am writing novels. Even though I have checked this chapter for several times, you are still expected to meet some annoying errors while reading it, really sorry about that** **L** **Chapter 1 2 are essentially the exposition of this story, and as we move on to chapter 3, things would get really exciting. I think I will update a couple of days later. So, I hope you will enjoy this new chapter, and please give me some feedback, thanks** **J**

 **The following scene happened one and a half day after the Spectres escaped from Malachor. In the conference room of the Chopper Base, right before the commanders in the base were going to have a formal meeting. Hera was preparing for the meeting alone in the room when Ezra dashed into the room to talk to her.**

"I say we should go back and find her!" Ezra smashed his fist into the control panel as he cried out with rage. "There may be chance…"

"No, that is impossible." Hera carefully hold the teenager's vicious gaze, "There was no way she could defeat him. Accept that, Ezra, she is gone."

"The explosion might separate them! He might lose her trail and therefore gave up hunting her down!" Ezra hissed, "And she is the fulcrum, she once saved all of us, you are underestimating her power!"

Hera meticulously planned her words before putting them out one by one, "Ezra, we all know he would never easily let any force users besides Siths go, and he wanted her somehow eagerly. I am not saying that Ahsoka is not a good fighter, but we must admit that he is the most powerful Sith lord besides the Emperor."

"So that is what you do, er? Standing here doing noting just because of your unreliable postulation? Malachor is a kriffing sterile planet with literally no food or inhabitants, so even if Ahsoka lives, she will be stranded and eventually die in that hellish world. We can't just leave her dying there! Listen, Hera, I am not asking you to risk the whole crew to fight back Darth Vader, he has left, we all know; instead, I am only asking you to have a look in that planet again. If she survives, we will bring her back, but if she didn't make it, we will immediately set off and continue our mission, clear?" Ezra bit his lips and glared at the Twilek woman before him.

"Ezra, just calm down, please." Hera sighed, "Maul may still be there, and we don't trust him."

"Oh great!" Ezra smirked bitterly, "Ahsoka is probably now starving and trapped and chased by a devil in that rocky hellhole while we are simply doing nothing here. How the kriff can we save the whole galaxy if we don't even bother to rescue a woman who saved all of us? Hera, you are the general, the commander, you can be indifferent and relentless in a battle, but hey, this is not a battle, this is something we should do as an obligation, we all owe something to her, right?"

"But Ezra, the chance is really small…" Hera began.

"And you are too busy to help her, is that what you mean?" Ezra snorted, "If the rebels don't even bother to provide reasonable aid for one of its most important ally, I really see no reason it will continue to work."

He dashed out of the room without throwing another glance at her.

"Hey! Ezra, come back, you don't understand!" Hera yelled after him.

"To put it in another way, I never really understand you." He coldly relied as he slammed the door.

Always so stubborn and irrational, that is Ezra. Hera thought, sometimes people should let things go instead of desperately clinging to the last straw, which doesn't help at all. However, she had to admit that Ezra was too young for those stuffs. He was just a teenager, and instead of staying in schools or homes, like most of his peers, he was in probably the most dangerous organization in the whole galaxy, where death was frequent and inevitable. She hoped that Ezra could overcome those things well, like what she did when her mother was killed.

Khan was blinded, Ahoska went missing (potentially dead, in her opinion), Ezra was angry with her and got enthralled to a little Sith holocron that she suspected to be dangerous, everything just went terribly wrong. She had been making bad, dull decision that endangered her friends; she shall never dispatch her crew to Malachor. She had to be responsible for the loss of Ahsoka, who was once the most powerful member of the Phoenix Squadron.

The buzzing at the communication console interrupted her self-accusation. She straightened herself up and walked to check the message, gratified to get rid of her remorse for a brief moment. But when she looked carefully at the call report, suspicion crept over her. This signal was neither from an Empire agency nor another rebels base, rather, it was reported that it was from a single comlink used by members of the Phoenix Squadron, but currently none of the members in the base were sent to complete missions, except…She was jolted by the possibility of that. She located the signal and began to scan it for its origin.

The result shocked her so badly that she repeated the process for several time to assure herself that it was real. The signal was issued from Malachor. "It is impossible." She uttered, no one except members of the Phoenix Squadron knew how to use this comlink, so it was definitely not a trick from Maul.

She snatched a mouthpiece from the table and accepted the call, but she heard nothing but a faint rustle, probably from the blowing wind.

"Can you hear me?" She said tentatively and pumped up the volume.

No response. The wind continued to blow at the other side of the world, but this time, Hera heard another very subtle rustle. It must not be wind, because it was rhythmic, somehow back and forth, in an extremely slow pace.

It was a trace of breathing.

"Who are you?" Hera asked, this time much louder and more aggressive, almost like she was interrogating whoever held the comlink.

No response, again.

Hera pumped the volume to the largest scale and almost yelled at the mouthpiece.

"Is anyone there?"

Except the rustle of wind and the elusive breathing, the world at the other side was dead silent. _Stang, there must be something wrong with the comlink so it can't receive any response, or even worse, Ahoska may be too weak to speak._ Hera thought as she tugged at one of her lekk in distress. _Ezra is right, Ahsoka is very likely to be alive. I must go and rescue her now, before she was completely exhausted in that planet._

She decided that she would locate the comlink by tracking down the signal, so she duplicated the electromagnet wave of the signal in a chip and shoved it into her pocket. She darted out of the room, going straight to Ezra's dorm.

Ezra was fiddling with the holocron when he was jarred by the fierce knocking on his door. He reluctantly hid the pyramid deep in his drawer and opened the door. Before he could clearly see who was standing in front of him, Hera had already grabbed his arm and yanked him out of the room.

"Wait, Hera, what are you doing?" Ezra shouted in pain and tried to withdraw his arm.

"We must go to Malachor. I have found evidence indicating that Ahsoka is still alive." Hera gasped and struggled to speak after her vicious run, "Come with me."

"Are you kriffing kidding me?" Ezra crossed his arms, looked both perplexed and mistrustful.

Hera was pissed, "Don't show me this kind of nasty attitude. Also, don't you always want me to do it?"

"No, I am just…amazed… by the… transformation… of your perspective." Ezra tried his best to be courteous.

Hera rolled her eyes, "Then don't just stand here and waste our precious time. Follow me, we don't have much time."

They rushed to the hangar. To Ezra's surprise, instead of large spacecrafts like the _Phantom_ , Hera only chose a small Taylander shuttle.

"Just don't want to attract attention from the Empire at this moment." She explained, "Taylander shuttles can be found all over the galaxy while all the other spaceships can be easily associated with rebels. There are only two of us, the risk is just too high here."

She tossed the chip to Ezra. "Help me to track this signal down."

"What's this for?"

"The signal is from the comlink Ahoska used, probably. We can know exactly where she is by trailing it." Hera didn't know why she felt very certain about the owner of this little device, maybe it is because she desperately wanted Ahsoka back. _Please, force, please let what I wish come true._

They entered the hyperspace. "Have you figured out where the signal came from on Malachor?" Hera urgently asked.

"It is not far away from the chasm we fell in, near the Sith Temple." Ezra looked at the navigation device.

"So it is possible that she still stays underground."

"I can't locate the signal that specifically in this long distance, but yes, it is possible." Ezra furrowed his brows in anxiety.

 _Not good_. Hera accelerated the shuttle. _She can't live long in that cold and macabre hellhole._

"We must hurry." Hera said when she inputted the coordinate of the area near the Sith Temple as her final destination and speeded up the ship to its largest velocity. What followed was the least smooth landing Hera had ever made. They crushed into the atmosphere of Malachor, and Ezra began to shriek at Hera since he perceived that she didn't slow down even until the moment the shuttle was about to collide with the ground.

"Just shut up!" Hera snarled as she strained the brake. Then the spaceship knocked into the ground with a dull thud, barely escaping the fate of destruction.

"We will track down the signal to find the comlink." Hera got out of the shuttle, "I think you can locate it more accurately here. Its specific location?"

"About 2 miles from here."

"Underground?"

"No, it is above the Sith Temple."

"Thanks force." Hera sighed with relief. That could be easier for Ahsoka. "Let's move on."

Ezra took the lead since he had the navigation device. He noticed that the appalling conditions of Malachor obviously annoyed Hera. The dim sky was cover by dense and grey clouds, and the freezing winds, along with thick fog, constantly blew through the barren land.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Hera murmured. Stang, she shall listen to Ezra at the very beginning, now it was perhaps too late for Ahsoka.

"This way." Ezra said, and both he and Hera automatically started to run, into the deeper part of the wasteland.

A shadow behind a huge rock shifted while seeing the two figures submerged into the maze of death. It waited until the two were completely devoured by mist and darkness, then it began sneaking, without a sound, to the shuttle. Finally, it reached the vehicle, and with incredible proficiency, it activated the boarding ramp and crept into the driver compartment.

"We are almost there, just about ten feet! The signal is getting stronger." Ezra uttered a cry and paused. "She must be somewhere near."

"Ahoska, can you hear me?" Hera yelled. They couldn't see any humanoid figure near them, probably because the fog was just so thick that their views were blocked.

They both moved back and forth, summoned her, and tried to peer through the firm of mist, but they found nothing, and received no response.

"She may be lying down. Ezra, pay some attention to the ground…" Hera's voice was disrupted by the desperate screaming from Ezra, after he stumbled over something.

"Oh force! Why, why?" He fell to the ground and whimpered. "Why are you doing this to her?"

The comlink was the only thing that remained intact. Ahsoka's torn wristband and headdress laid limply on the ground. Pieces of silver metal and severed components, once part of a pair of lightsabers, were scattered all over the place.

Suddenly a loud droning jolted both of them, a shuttle, driven by an unknown person, rose and pierced the clouds before them.

"Wait, that is our ship!" Hera felt truly terrified this time. Their shuttle was stolen, Ahsoka's fate was tragically settled, and the worse of all, she as well as Ezra were trapped here. The old Jedi legend was true, this planet was filled with curse and death.

"It must be Maul." Ezra said from his clenched teeth, "He killed her after she tried to call for our help, he must know we were going to come and rescue her. He had been looking for a chance to get out of here, so he just waited for us and then sneaked into the ship while we were gone looking for her."

"Ezra." Hera put a hand on Ezra's quivering shoulder, "At least we try."

"Poor Ahsoka, that devil should be damned to hell!" Ezra growled, his eyes blazed with anger. "How on earth did I ever bother to trust him?"

"It is not your fault, really." Hera sighed, "We should let her go now. She will be remembered."

 _This is kind of ironic,_ Hera thought as she pressed the call button of her comlink.

"This is Phoenix Squadron." Sabine's normal voice sounded somehow ridiculous in this gloomy land.

"Sabine? I am Hera."

"Where are you Hera? We have been looking for you. I thought we would have a meeting with commander Jun Sato."

"It may sound weird, but I and Ezra are now in Malachor."

"Malachor?" Sabine sounded far from being just amazed, "Why?"

"I will explain it to you later. But now please dispatch some ships to bring us back, we are stranded in this planet."

"Is it something about the Fulcrum?"

"Sabine, please, I don't want to talk about this now." Hera whispered as she glanced with concern at Ezra, who was now sitting despondently on the ground with his hand holding one of Ahsoka's mutilated lightsaber.

"I am sorry." Sabine said with comprehension. "We will come as fast as we can."

Hera hung up and dragged her feet to the spot where the relic of the Fulcrum was found. She stooped and collected those items, thinking that they could commemorate the honorable former Jedi, but she only got more and more suspicious while assembling them together. _If she was really dead, where is the body? And if Maul killed her, why did he bother to hide her body? Even if we know he murdered her, we can't do anything about it, he is not scared of us at all._

"No, it can't be him." Hera muttered suddenly.

"What?" Ezra thought she was talking to him.

"Never mind." Hera faked a smile to him, "Just talking to myself."

 _No, she would have never ever done such thing. Stop thinking about such bullshit. She loved the rebels._ Hera attempted to avoid those absurd speculations in her mind by focusing on packing Ahoska's stuffs.

History has to move on, life has to continue, and the past, is no longer important. Hera picked up Ahsoka's comlink and gently deposited it in her pocket. She decided to bury her in her heart with utmost deference.


	3. Chapter 3

AN:This chapter is way more longer than I expected. A review for my previous chapter says that it is too rushed, so this time I try my best to include sufficient details in the chapter. Again, please be tolerant with some potential grammar mistakes in the text, and review please!

Chapter 3 happened three months after the event in chapter 2

* * *

Night had started to envelope the flourished planet of Coruscant, which, with its inalienable vigor and gaiety, protested again the sovereignty of darkness. For inhabitants in the underworld, there was not difference between day and night. Even until midnight, the underworld still remained as noisy as it was in the daytime, suffused with strong artificial light and foul air.

In Level 2685, a bar in an obscure corner, as usual, was crammed with endless clamor. Dim light emitted from a worn chandelier was barely enough to illuminate the whole chamber. Several men, most of them bounty hunters and smugglers, unable to afford a booth, sat by the counter. A woman in large cape and close-fitting robe sat alone in a single booth not far away from the counter; her face was constantly hidden in a black veil. Those men leered at the mysterious woman with a wicked smile, exchanging comment.

"Not bad boobs, very good ones actually." One of them whispered, licking his lips.

"I wish I would see that face atop this perfect body."

"Buddy, I bet it is gonna take more than 50 bucks for a night with her."

When the woman tilted her head to the counter, those men immediately stopped making remarks on her, and shifted their topic to their daily bragging.

"You know what? The last time I saw such pneumatic body was in level 1312, that was a Twilke girl in a nightclub, you should see how she danced, I would have never forgotten it for the rest of my life. That night I just received a bunch of bounty from one of my clients, so…I had the luxury." A Weequay bounty hunter said smugly.

"She was good, wasn't she?"

"At least I think she deserved those moneys. She costed me 100 bucks." The bounty hunter puffed at his cigarette, "I bet no one in this bar spends as much money on girls as I did."

"You had a generous client." Someone said, a bit jealous.

"Yes, not only generous, but also powerful." The Weequay male chuckled, "He was Jabba the Hutt."

A snort of scorn startled the gang of men. It was from a middle-age human male sitting alone by the counter. His left face was perfectly covered in darkness, but the ultra-blue eye at his right face squinted dismissively at those bounty hunters. Although the man was wearing a loosen shirt, his firm muscle still bulged out of the thin fabric.

"It seems like this new brother has something more exciting to say." The Weequay bounty hunter sneered as he put an arm around the shoulder of the stranger, "Tell me something about your marvelous clients."

The man turned his face a bit towards those giggling bounty hunters, his lips formed a mocking smirk. "I am not a bounty hunter, I never expect myself to be one, but yes, I had clients, or in other words, masters."

He took a long gulp in his cup that was filled with the stiffest drink in the bar. "You all know who they are, don't you? But I, I am the only one that had true contact with them, I followed them almost to everywhere, and they trusted me in a way that no one else did."

"Are you talking about those hot Twilke strippers in Level 5 pubs?" Someone said in one of the booths contemptuously, causing a wave of laughter all over the bar, "Forget about it, you can't afford them."

"No, you low-class idiot, I am talking about Lord Vader, and the great Emperor." The man took a sip from his bottle triumphantly, "I served them."

The names struck dead silence in the whole bar, and the masked woman sitting alone in a booth shifted uneasily. The man smirked and set his bottle aside on the counter. He took up a leather bag from his suitcase and undid the knot, revealing the scarlet robe of an imperial royal guard.

"That was me." He caressed the robe in a sick and affectionate way, immersed in his glorious past. "By the side of the honorable Lord Vader and the Emperor."

A suspicious woman's voice broke the tense silence. "Then why are you here?"

"Ask those despicable rebel jerks. They blinded me during a futile attempt to attack Lord Vader. He was pleased with my performance, but I couldn't work for him with only one eye." The man smiled bitterly, tilting his head to one side to show the disfigured left side of his face. "So now I am here, wretched and ashamed, with depraved scums like you."

His words obviously exasperated some people in the bar.

"Dude, I really respect you for your former occupation, but it's beyond my endurance that you mocking the brothers and sisters in Level 2685." A bounty hunter stood up and walked to the man. Three other men, all bounty hunters, also joined him. The former royal guard only chuckled when he was surrounded by four strong and healthy strangers, and slowly turned around to face them.

His face was now fully revealed under the spotlight from the chandelier that hang right above his head. The eye pocket in his left face was empty; deep, ugly scars ran from his cheek to forehead. Still, the pale blue eye at his right face, like that of a hawk, stared coldly at his enemy.

Tension was building up, four sinewy men confronted one half-blind and drunken man, but they had no idea what to start with.

"Sir, no fight in my bar." The barkeeper shouted at them across the counter.

"A good man should never try to evade any real fight, otherwise, he is just a coward with no guts and empty promise." The man, with a sinister smell on his face, savored the aroma of blood that would soon fill up the whole bar.

Eventually, one of the four punched at the man's back, and the scuffle began.

The man first retreated by kicking at his attacker's groin, then he hoisted him and flung him across the counter. The poor man, along with the shriek from the barkeeper, banged into the shelves that hold hundreds of wine bottles, which instantly fell like cascade on the wrenching body on the floor. The other three guys, frightened by the groan from their ally, kicked and struck at the man in a hurry, but the man, patient and calm, didn't lose a bit of his endurance. He elbowed in the stomach of one of them, and when his rival flinched in pain, he smashed at his jaw with so much force that the unfortunate guy fell on the ground and lost consciousness.

"What's up, homie?" He grinned with disdain at the remaining two flinching opponents, "Don't you want to continue?"

 _He was tough to handle._ The veiled woman thought. _I must be prepared._

"Er..no, thanks, sir, we..we were just kidding. Please forgive us for what we did to you." The two bounty hunters said in trembling voices and automatically backed up. Everyone in the bar stared deferentially at the man without moving a muscle.

"Well then." The man said dismissively, "You should remember, that no matter a man is disabled or disfigured, nothing can stop him from being who he really is."

His words made the woman with veil think of someone, someone who was also mutilated and disfigured, but those things stopped him from being himself, those things transformed him into a devil…

The veiled woman rose, strode over the two writhing bodies on the floor, and went straight to the door.

"No, Miss, don't follow him. You are too vulnerable for him." Someone said with sincerity.

"But I have to." She relied with determination, she wouldn't just easily let this opportunity slip away.

He furrowed his brow with disgust when he stepped into the dirty and crowded street in the Level 2685. He missed the times he stayed by his masters' side, wearing the crimson robe and helmet with his force pike rested on his shoulder. He especially enjoyed the way people looked at him when he marched along the Emperor, how fearful, how scared, how admiring, how respectful! His time in Mustafar could also be one of the proudest mission in his career, knowing the true Darth Vader under his horrible mask and armor, watching that mutilated body floating in the bacta tank helplessly. Oops! Even the invincible Lord Vader had his moment of absolute fragility, and he, the loyal imperial guard, was all the Sith Lord had to protect himself. Yes! Lord Vader needed him, only he could satisfy his need, only he could be fully trusted.

Finally, he reached the door of his inn. Now the alcohol was really working on him, since he couldn't even feel the handle of his suitcase. He stumbled up the stairs with the assistance of the handrail, and unlocked his room with a shaking hand.

He collapsed into his defiled bed, the strong stink in the narrow room gradually sobered him up. The cruel reality was unfurled before him: he was running out of money, he was unemployed and dissipating the pension given by the Empire, he was moving from higher levels to the lower ones for lower living expense, sinking deeper and deeper into misery. He didn't want to mingle with those heinous bounty hunters and smugglers in order to make a living, the only thing he could do now was reliving his beautiful past by drinking over and over, cursing those kriffing rebels for ruining his life.

This was when he heard footstep coming up, an urgent but also cautious one, and then it paused at the threshold of his room. Someone began gently knocking on his door.

 _Interesting._ He thought, if it was someone offended in the bar, he or she wouldn't be so careful. Whoever was at the other side of the door, had a unique purpose.

He opened his suitcase, retrieved a gun from the bottom of his clothes, and hid it well under the pillow. Then he walked to the door, hand on the handle, and stuck his ear to the door, listening carefully.

"Is anyone there?" It was a vigilant female voice.

"What do you want?"

"I need to talk to you."

He slowly opened the door, ready for any sudden assault, but she didn't move a muscle. He peered through the crack and saw that veiled woman standing serenely before him.

"I can't trust a person who intentionally conceals her face." He said.

"Well then," He could hear her giggle under that mask, "I will take that hood off as you wish."

His breath stopped as soon as she unfurled the black veil, for he had never saw such beautiful woman. Her skin was of sexily tinned orange-red; her big, mesmerizing azure blue eyes disorientated him; her rosy lips formed a perfect smile that any man would lose themselves in.

"Well, sir, can you let me in now?" She tilted her head and chuckled.

He didn't know what urged him to do so, but he let the door wide open. As a man who had served in military for most of his life, this was the very first time he felt so intensely attracted to women. Damn it, he just kriffing wanted it, at no matter cost.

"You win, lady." He murmured as she smirked and walked into the room.

"And YOU lose, dear former royal guard." She relied with an innocent grin, then she locked the door behind her. His nerve went instantly taut with fear.

Before he would pose for defense, she had already leaped with lightning speed to his left side, which was in his blind spot. Panic pierced his heart since he couldn't see what she was doing to him. She crawled up his body, put an arm around his neck, and began to strangle him. He struggled to shake her down but his blindness only allowed him to claw at her. Eventually, he grabbed both of her arms and pulled her down his body. Ahsoka almost banged into the ground, but she turned a somersault and barely remained on her feet, escaping a strike from the man.

"You must be one of the rebels, right?" He said through his clenched teeth, "What a cunning devil with an angelic face!"

"Thank you, I would like to take that as a compliment." She mocked back and attempted her second attack, but before she could kick at him, he seized her leg and tried to sprain it.

Stang, he was too strong, too tall, and most terribly, too quick. Ahsoka managed to withdraw her leg, she had to use that power to go straight to the point as soon as she could.

The man started to reach for his pillow. He pulled out his gun and pointed it at her, but before he could pull the trigger, Ahsoka waved her hand and the force knocked the gun out of his hand.

This time his face manifested nothing but absolute fear and pallor. It was possible that Ahsoka was the first force user he had ever confronted, at least on his own.

"Jedi!" He cried, "Help! There is a Jedi!"

The word "Jedi" sparked intense hatred and anger in her heart. She had been trying to get rid of this stupid title for almost two decades, but people just again and again associated her with those hypocritical peacekeepers that ruined her life. Why couldn't she be free? Why couldn't she just be herself?

"Shut the kriff off!" She exclaimed in anger, "No one is going to hear you, the innkeeper is gone, there are only you and I in this inn."

She enjoyed the way he quivered. "See? I paid him to leave for a moment. As long as you have money, there is nothing you can't do in the underworld."

The former imperial guard endeavored to run to the door, but before he could move a single step, Ahoska pushed him onto the wall with the force and choked him.

"Are you working for Lord Vader?" She asked solemnly, stressing on the word "Vader".

"Ye..ss, whattt dou you want me tooo dou?" The man gasped frantically, straining for air.

"Where does he live?"

A weak smile appeared on his face, as if she was asking a dull question.

"Innn Corrousannt, dou you kn..know?"

"Liar! Are you treating me like a fool?" Ahoska roared, "He seldom lives in that ugly tower, even when he is off duty. I have been observing that building for almost 3 months and he never seemed to be there. There must be somewhere else he lives, away from the attention from the crowd. Are you telling me that place, or not?"

He averted his eye uneasily for an instant and that immediately captured her attention. He was trying to hide something from her.

"You must know that place, don't you?" She sneered, "It seems like I am not pushing you hard enough."

She hardened her grip on his throat, causing a much greater groan and struggle. He attempted to rip off the invisible hands that suffocated him, but in vain. Fear of death, as an animal instinct, overwhelmed him. He wanted to give in, but his past as a loyal soldier to his country, as a faithful guard to his masters, resisted his concession. The rebels had taken one of his eyes from him, why not just let they ended his miserable life now? He saw no meaning of living without contributing anything to his dear masters and empire.

"I wonnn't betray him, it..it is mmy dutt..ty to protect him ag..against any harm."

"No, you are wrong." She murmured, "I am never going to hurt him. I love him."

Ahsoka wasn't surprised to see the man's jaw dropped in shock. Her confession made her feel free at a last, confiding what she felt about Vader, an infamous killer that she shall hate to core. She could finally escape her supposed role as member of the rebels and a peacekeeper, and had emotion besides sense of justice. No matter what Vader did, he was her master, whose attachment with her could never be easily wiped out.

Anger and sorrow again drove her into a frenzy. She had left the rebels for over 3 months, betrayed her friends and gone into a difficult hiding. The more she struggled to live on, the more she came to realize that she had past the point of no return. What could Ezra and Hera felt if they knew she was the one who stole and sold their shuttle and abandoned them in that hellish planet? They could regard her as a traitor and never accept her again. She would not come back, the only thing she might do now was to complete her redemption. When they finally met each other, there would be the closure of everything, her suffering, her guilt, and most possibly, her wretched life. Fatigue had worn her to the point that she was automatically quitting, but before turned into ashes, she would like to meet him and say something, to tell him that she had always loved him, that she was sorry for hurting him so much, that she was willing to dedicated everything she had to him, whoever he was. She didn't want to be stuck in this dirty world for the rest of her life without seeing him again. She needed him desperately, no matter he was Vader, Anakin, or whoever between the two. Three months had elapsed and this desire haunted her every day and night, yet she just continued to fail to find Vader, and that plunged her into frustration and despair. She could wait no more, and this man, this dying former imperial guard was the only barrier she needed to break to reach Vader, she was determined to torture every bit of his body to get him speaking.

"Well, still so stubborn." She teased as she stopped squeezing and flung the man to the ground, "I have been too soft to you, let's try another way."

Ahsoka opened his suitcase and found the leather bag that contained the crimson robe of an imperial guard. She took that robe out and waved it before the man.

"Wait! What do want to do with it?" The man cried out in fear.

"You past, your beautiful past, was all on this one piece of cloth, a proof of your glorious career. You are proud of it, aren't you? Showing it off from bar to bar, from level to level." She sneered, "But look at who you are now, blind, unemployed, impoverished, what do you have beside this shred of cloth from the empire?"

" Give it back to me, please!" He contrived to stand up.

"And what you are, WITHOUT this magnificent robe?" She fetched out a cigarette lighter from the nightstand.

"No!" He screamed and lunged at her, only to be shoved back, colliding with the wall behind him.

"Nothing but a walking dead who indulges in alcohol and daydreaming, like those humble bounty hunters and pimps." She giggled, "No one is going to believe you, a psychopathic hobo who obstinately claimed that he worked for the great Emperor and Lord Vader!"

The robe caught on fire as she triggered the lighter. His glory, his dignity, all collapsed before him. She was right, he was losing everything. The way people looked at him, the respect, the admiration, the fear, were all going to vanished, replaced by disgust, contempt, and even pity. The scarlet fabric shriveled and blackened, fume of smoke suffocated him. The flame was devouring up his precious memory of being one of the strongest soldier in the galaxy, mocking at him for how vulnerable he was now. No, no! He could not just let his glory perished into ash, it was the air he breathed on, the alcohol he relied on to relieve his pain. Damn it! Nothing could be more torturous than muddling along day to day without the pride as a warrior to his beloved empire.

"Mustafar! He is in Mustafar!" He yelled ferociously, "Put out the fire. You have got what you want!"

Before Ahsoka could turn off the lighter, the man had already sprung to his feet and seized the burning robe away from her, using his own flesh to stifle the flame. The fire quickly engulfed him, licking up the withering body that uttered horrible shriek. Everything was on fire instantly. The plank beneath the man, the bed, and the furniture screeched as they were set on fire in the narrow room. Ahsoka put down her veil and escaped the inn, leaving the man cremated with his pride and delusionary memory.

"Mustafar, he is in Mustafar." She repeated those words to herself as she penetrated the agitated crowd. People behind her were shouting, demanding her to stop. The whole inn was burning down and they suspected that she was responsible for it. But she didn't give a kriff about it, she just kept running and talking to herself. She was going to be entirely free at last, no more suffering, no more hiding, no more self-deception. The only thing she needed to do now was to find a ship and go to that planet, then it would be the closure of everything.

"Anakin, don't worry, I am coming." She whispered to him through a serene voice, and once again dived into the infinite clamor of Coruscant.

Ahsoka was in the cockpit of her shuttle, at the hangar of Level 1312. She was glad that the money she had was just enough to pay for this ship. She sold the Taylander shuttle from the Chopper Base as soon as she arrived in Coruscant, and she had been working as a mechanic for months, mending spacecraft and weapons in the black market, kind of like her old day in Thabeska. Yes, Thabeska, that planet was the beginning of her suffering and painful hiding, but now Mustafar would be the end of all of them.

She took a deep breath and checked her lightsabers. The destroyed lightsabers Hera and Ezra found on Malachor was just a trick from her, as part of her effort to fake her death. In Malachor, she used the force to shatter the hilt of her lightsabers, and took out the kyber crystal from the mutilated lightsabers, so when Hera and Ezra saw the scattered remain of her lightsabers, they may think she was dead from an attack. In Coruscant, Ahsoka rebuilt two new lightsabers using the kyber crystal from her former ones.

In her heart, Ahsoka silently apologized to the Rebels, especially to the Spectre. She set up this organization, but now she was determined to leave it for good. She was glad that her fake death did work for the Rebels, since she recently heard that a new fulcrum was elected. Instead of leaving without a proper explanation, she preferred being dead for her former allies. Yes, virtually the Fulcrum Ahsoka was dead in Malachor. She was resurrected not for justice, but for the balance of the force. She was no longer the force user with Jedi traits, she was just a force user; she was no longer former Jedi Ahsoka, she was just Ahsoka.

"Farewell." She murmured as she started the engine and grabbed the steering wheel. "Vader, wait for me." She wished her death could be a quick and painless one.

And it would be.

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AN: I hope this chapter clearly unravels all the questions you may have in the previous chapter. We have gone through Ahsoka's mind in chapter 13, and next chapter I will try to explore Vader's. This is gonna be really exciting. Update will be made least than a week later.

Also, for those who haven't read the canon fiction _Star Wars Ahsoka_ , Thabeska was the first planet Ahsoka lived in after the establishment of the Galactic Empire. She stayed there with fake identity and made a living as a mechanic.


	4. Chapter 4

AN: I feel horrible now. My first reader-my sister, says this chapter is terrible and she will not follow my story any more. She can't take my plot and says I am a perv, I am afraid that many of you may feel this way too, but I still decide to continue this "twisted" story. I will not give any spoiler here, but I would say I have changed the rate to M, because some violence and graphic scene are involved. Anyone who is sensitive to those can just stop here. If you feel sick, you are free to unfollow this story, but please don't leave any offensive comments to this story. Negative reviews can easily destroy my motive of writing, so please be a nice reader and keep your hate to yourself. I can definitely understand you if you hate this chapter.

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Even though those lavas burned miles beneath the operation table, Vader would still feel the dreadful heat coming up his castle. The medic droids were busy putting up his armor for him, who just came out of bacta tank. He tried to breath on his own, but the familiar suffocation frustrated him. Damn it, the bacta tank was not working for his lung, nor was the force heal he imposed on himself. In fact, those treatments didn't help healing any part of his body. His disfigured face still disgusted him, his mutilated legs still crippled him, his badly burned throat still forbid him from eating anything besides liquid food. This was not walking, not breathing, not living, it was nothing but slavery. He hated his life as much as how he hated this planet. 16 years ago, right in this place, everything he had was brought away, by the fire, and by that despicable man he once called "master".

"Master Vader, we have finish replacing your armor." The med droids said.

He stood up with help from the droids, trying to adjust to his new limbs. Shuffling along the passage, he finally stepped out the infirmary, and began walking through the long corridor of his castle.

Usually Vader went to his meditation room as soon as he changed his armor, but this time, he decided to go for a walk along the lava bank. Something was bothering him so annoyingly that he needed to relive his painful memory to reduce the guilt in his heart.

The unbearable heat ripped into his mask when he left the castle, scorching his sensitive skin. He moved on steadily, closer and closer to the bank. He started to hear scream of pain amplifying in his skull. It was slowly tearing him apart, that horrible image was unfurling before him, and yet he enjoyed it, the nectar of hate and violence, they made him again feel like himself.

And there the spot was.

 _"I hate you!" Anakin snarled as flame ate out his flesh, his mechanical arm gripped desperately on the lava bed. Not far away from him, a man stood indifferently, watching his own padawan devoured by fire._

 _"You're my brother, Anakin. I love you." He picked up Anakin's lightsaber, and left without throwing another glance at him._

Liar, Obi-Wan never loved him. He only know how to abuse Anakin while he was obedient to him. He shall go to hell along with his hypocritical Jedi Code.

In the cruel battle between the light and the dark side of the force, masters killed their padawans. Obi-Wan failed to do so, but he—Vader, didn't.

He had killed her for more than three months. In the temple, he stabbed at her right at the chest without blinking his eyes, watching her writhe and struggle with pain and fear, her face twisted by shock and sorrow, and ultimately dead serenity. He still remembered the coldness of her body as he found her and wrapped his arms around her after the explosion. The numbness, rigidity and chill that had nothing like Anakin's deft and vigorous padawan. Her face was like a withering rose in freezing winter, decayed and shrunk.

At that moment he hated himself more than anything, more than any time before. He failed her—Anakin was not at all a good master, he forsook Ahsoka as well when all those craps in the Jedi Council did so. He didn't follow her as she left the Order, leaving her—a sixteen-year-old girl to face all those kriff in this kriffing universe on her own. Anakin knew Jedi were nothing but hypocrites, but he didn't leave as well because he was kriffing stupid and cowardly. Now， he—Darth Vader, not only became the murderer she was disappointed with, but also slayed her cruelly.

He bit his lips, trying to suppress his reminiscence. Anakin, that weak and foolish Jedi, once cherished personal attachment so much against the Jedi Code, but all the ones he loved eventually betrayed him. He was now Darth Vader, a much stronger Sith who ought to be relentless and only loyal to his master. She was part of the Rebels, so it was his obligation to wipe her out for the good of the Empire.

Ahsoka, that tiny Torguta girl who was even more reckless than her master, had completely vanished from his life. Another part of Anakin died with her, and Vader was satisfied with it—one step closer to being a real Sith.

"Master." He suddenly heard a gentle call behind him.

It was her voice. He chuckled, it must be another illusion. _Anakin, stop bothering me. I have defeated and destroyed you. She is dead, accept that._

"Anakin!" Another call again disturbed him, but this time it drove him mad. _Stop it! Anakin is dead, he is weak and useless and stupid, I am Darth Vader, a Sith, not a Jedi scum!_

He furiously turned around, but was instantly startled by the person who stood behind him.

She was there, intact and serene, with a bitter smile on her face. He saw no trace of injury on her body, even on her chest, where there shall be a hole caused by stabbing.

"Who are you?" He hissed. It was impossible that she was still alive—in Malachor, he checked her breathing and heartbeat, which confirmed her decease. It must be another trick from the Rebels.

"What do you think?"

"You are a clone, aren't you?" He sneered, "The Rebels are more cunning than I thought. They need a fake Fulcrum to conceal the fact that one of their most important leaders is dead, don't they? I suggest you to surrender right now, because there is no way your skills can be equivalent to your genetic model's."

"I am not a clone!" Ahsoka said, this was getting ridiculous.

"Prove it to me." He snorted, "She is dead."

"As you wish, master."

She activated her two lightsabers as Vader activated his. He expected to end the life of this inferior imitation in only one slash. Palpatine was right, the Rebels was just a bunch of uneducated pirates and smugglers. How could they vainly hope for the duplicate of Ahsoka? She was unique and unsurpassable, at least among those rebels. She was HIS padawan, the best of the best of the best in the temple at wartime. It suddenly occurred to him that he was proud of her, damned smug about her. For him, any attempt to replace Ahsoka was totally lunatic and futile.

Yet he soon found out that she was not that easy to handle. Her leap, her force push, and her strikes were all somehow familiar to him. She was dexterous, escaping his attack in incredibly high speed, and used force that was strong enough to shove him aside for a few meters. The rebels really invested a lot in the cultivation their leader's clone.

Their lightsabers crushed together, and they glared at each other through the crack in light. He held her gaze but soon lost himself in her eyes. Instead of the hollowness and fear he expected to be found in a clone, her eyes were filled with serenity, and most importantly, memory.

He started to hear voices and see images.

 _"It's alright, snip." A blonde young man with charming smile patted a little Torguta girl on shoulder, "We gonna wreck those stupid Separatist droids as soon as possible, that is just an easy piece."_

 _"Hey, patient, Anakin." A mid-aged man carrying himself with ease raised his eyebrow in the usual sarcastic way._

 _"Don't lecture me, Obi-Wan." Anakin unpleasantly relied, "Not before my padawan."_

 _"What are you saying?" General Kenobi gently tugged at one of the Torguta girl's lekk, who flinched but giggled, "She is OUR padawan."_

The intrusion of recollection drove Vader mad. It was fake and deceptive. He didn't need it, he kriffing hated it! It all belonged to Anakin—that susceptible coward. Those flattery illusion was rotting his unfeeling nature as a Sith, luring him to crawl back into the weak form of Anakin Skywalker. He attempted to tear his eyes from her spellbound gaze, but those voices and images just continue encroaching into his mind through his bond with her. Yes, it was her, his former padawan.

"How can it be?" He gasped, "You are dead!"

"You forget Mortis?"

Mortis, another awful memory crossed his mind. The prophecy that haunted him for his life, Anakin's despair over the death of his padawan, and Ahsoka's revival. He came to realize that he didn't want to let her die, didn't want relive that pain of losing her, who he once treated like his little sister. Ahsoka's advent was no doubt going to make him suffer again.

"Then why are you coming back here? You are dead if you meet me!" He cried out as Anakin seized on him, "Leave, now! Before he kills you!"

Although she couldn't see his face, Ahsoka knew the man before him was in great anguish and struggle, and that tortured her. She didn't care if he was Vader or Anakin, she just wanted to stop him from suffering.

"No, I won't leave you." She uttered softly.

"Are you insane? You want me to kill you?" Vader was taking over his body, yet he still resisted activating his lightsaber.

"No, I am just tired of my life." She threw her lightsabers away and stepped closer to the bank. "I am sorry, for everything. I have always been proud of being you padawan, but I just keep, failing you."

She choked with tears for a moment but soon continued "I never meant it, Vader. Never! I never thought you were him, at least…in form of him. But really, I never want to harm you. It may sound ridiculous, but yes, I love you, always."

She didn't know why, but the word "love" just came out of her mouth. Vader remained silent and motionless, his blank mask still glared at her, and the regular mechanical breathing was the only sound she could hear from him. She got panicked, cuz she felt like he was not taking her words seriously, and silence was the way he presented his mock and distrust to her.

"Trust me, I am no longer a rebel, I am never ever going to hurt you. Listen, Vader, you can do whatever to me, whatever you like. I just want to help you, to redeem all the wrong I did to you. I owe you so much that I am willing to give up anything to pay off my debt. Please, forgive me for what I have done."

He stood still for a long, torturous time, not even a change in the pace of his breathing was made. His dreadful silence almost freaked her out. Finally, he said something.

Vader slowly walked to the castle. With a dangled heart, Ahsoka followed him. She didn't know what he would did to her. In fact, it surprised her that he didn't kill her on the spot. Maybe he was willing to change himself, maybe part of Anakin came in and allowed him mercy. She might save Anakin, this naïve thought occurred to her for a moment.

But fear soon dispelled her hope, as they went deeper into the architecture. No doubt many Jedi died here from torment, she could still feel their presence as she walked through the corridor of what seemed to be interrogation rooms with Vader. It might be a walk of no return.

He apparently sensed her fear. "Don't worry, I have dismissed all the imperial guards. There are only you and I here."

His words didn't make her feel any better.

At almost the top of the castle, Vader entered a large chamber. The large bacta tank in the middle of the room immediately captured Ahsoka's attention. Besides the tank, more than 10 med droids, along with numerous medical machines and tools, were waiting for the order from their master.

"Take off all of my armor, including the respirator." He said to one of the droid.

"But master Vader, without them, you can't breat.."

"I told you to take all those stuffs away!" He snarled at the droid. "Do it right now!"

He turned his back on her as the droids started to remove his armor. They retrieved his large cape, detached his chest plate, and removed his boots and gloves. Ahsoka quivered when they stripped Vader of his body glove. Large scale of charred skin and organic prosthesis limbs were revealed. She couldn't believe what happened to him. Anakin was once so healthy and strong, but now, his body was burnt all over, and all of his limbs had been amputated.

Eventually, the medic took off his helmet. He slowly turned around to face her. For the first time, his face was entirely shown to her.

She instantly clapped her hands over her mouth to suppress a terrible scream. Even though she saw part of his face through the crack of his mask in Malachor, she never expected that he could be so severely disfigured. Fire had licked away his thick blonde hair. His skin, once smooth and tanned, turned cracked and vampire-pale. Scars ran all way down from his body, from his bare scalp to his knee. That pair of amber eyes glared at her, blazing with contempt and hate.

"See? This is the man you love. A disabled wretch who can't even breath on his own, whose monstrous face for certain disgusts you, a cripple, a murderer, a beast! You love me? Stop lying to me. It is already kind of you to simply dislike me!"

Vader lunged to Ahsoka and wrenched her head towards to his, forcing her to look into his eyes. "Look at me, look at your love's face. Who is handsomer? Me or your charming and flirty blonde master? Let me warn you for the last time, I am not him. I have destroyed him. It's time to quit any fantasy about me."

In spite of the distortion of his feature, Ahsoka could still recognize Anakin's face, and he was speaking in Anakin's voice. Yes, it was Anakin who was talking to her, telling her that he had killed himself, beating her, and calling himself a beast. Who changed him so terribly? She screamed and tried to evade his fiery gaze, but the hands holding her jaw were so hard that it was impossible to pull them away. Whenever she averted her eyes, he slapped her face, coercing her to look back at him.

"Struggle harder and shriek louder!" There was a both sarcastic and bitter quality in his voice, "Look at your face, where I see nothing but extreme disgust and fear. Is it the way people look at the ones they love? No, you don't love me, you never did. You love that charming blue-eyed young Jedi, not me. You are here with another purpose."

"No, I just want to help…" She began but his fingers slid down and clasped her throat. "I don't want to hear any more lies. The rebels dispatch you to here, right? They think you can gain my confidence, you can know my weakness, so they can eliminate me when the time is right. They are still so naïve, because I am never going to trust anyone."

Vader enjoyed the way she moaned, the way her body writhed because of asphyxiation. She was suffering and he loved it. This was just a beginning of her punishment for abandoning and repeatedly hurting him. "You told me to do whatever I like to you. Well then, I will make good use of your body."

Before Ahsoka grasped what he meant, Vader had pinned her hands against her back and dragged her out of the infirmary. She struggled in vain and shouted.

"Keep screaming, babe. Louder and louder! Except those dead Jedi, no one is going to hear you!" He laughed hysterically, fingering her neck.

She couldn't remember how many corridors they passed through, while she was crying and he was ripping off her garment like a savage. He finally banged into a room and hauled her inside. Half-naked, she knew he meant business when she saw the bed in the room.

"No, you are not doing this to me, please!" She implored him, her voice broken in fear.

"Why can't I? Ain't I your master?"

"But Padme…"

He gave her a hard punch on stomach and snarled in fury.

"Don't you dare mention her again, bitch!"

She really did everything she could—biting, crawling, kicking and ultimately desperate begging, but he never stopped. He just continued tearing off her clothes, her defense, her dignity, taking everything she had away from her.

When he forced her to lay down and pressed her arms again the bed, she knew she couldn't do anything to escape this nightmare. She closed her eyes and began courting seconds. Grown up in a Jedi temple, sex had been a dirty and shameful thing for her, but she never anticipated that one day she could be compelled to have it, by a Jedi she once respected so much. The penetration brought a shriek to her mouth. She felt he stabbing deep in her, in and out, moaning with pleasure, and mumbling her name in Anakin's voice. The seconds she counted rose from 1 to 2000, from 2000 to 4000, yet he didn't pause. The sheet beneath her was dampened with her tears. She felt like she was torn apart, by pain, shame, and despair.

The more she winced, the more he wanted to abuse her. See? He was right, she never loved him, she only hated and desired to overthrow him. Look at that pretty face every man in this galaxy could lust after. True, he might never have her heart, not with this ugly face and mutilated body, but at least he had her body, and he was going to make sure he was the only who had it.

"You may hate me, spurn me, wish me dead, but remember, you are forever mine, my asset, my slave. You will die only being my woman!"

The pleasure of revenge brought a smile to his lips when he clutched her throat and squeezed it as hard as he could. He felt her abating heartbeat at her neck, her body wrenching under his. Life was so delicate that one grip might end it forever, and he always savored abusing it, specially hers. Didn't she know how crushed he was when she left the Order? Didn't she know how disappointed he felt when he knew she was working for the rebels? Now, she would be pay for that. Her blue eyes gradually dimed and lost focus; her protest ceased; her heartbeat almost came to a stop but still struggled to move on. He knew it was only a few seconds before she died.

"Anakin, stop." He suddenly sensed another presence in this room.

He knew this voice. He heard it almost every time he was in his meditation chamber, in his dreams, his nightmares, and illusion.

"When can you quit hurting us?"

It was her. He was so shock that he paused what he was doing to Ahsoka.

"Padme?" He looked at the glimmering blue figure by the bed. She was still so beautiful, of course, she was his wife, his angel.

"You killed me, and now you are killing her."

"You don't say that!" He cried out in pain. He was never able to get over the fact that he killed his pregnant wife, even as a Sith.

"Why are you doing this to us? We love you!"

"No, she doesn't, not now." He smiled bitterly, "She hates me."

"Hatred and selfishness cloud your judgement, just like what they did to you last time. If she hates you, she won't be here, knowing that you are very likely to kill her." Tears well her eyes, "You really want to do it, Anakin? Killing two women who love you unconditionally in this hellish planet? You love her, Anakin, I knew that. We were like family! Remember? She was like our little sister, our girl. But now you are abusing and even trying to kill her. Oh, Anakin, I am so disappointed with you!"

Yes, he remembered. That little Torguta girl he called "snip". That girl he and Padme always tried to protect at no matter cost. That brave padawan who saved her master and his wife. Their bonds were almost unbroken, almost…

"We can never come back to that. We are now separated. But promise me one thing, Anakin, just one thing." Padme bit her lips, looking into the eyes of her transformed husband, "Let the girl go, let she choose whether she will follow you. Free her, at least for my sake."

"Stay strong, you only have each other now." She whispered her last words and started to fade away.

It took a few more seconds for Vader to come out of a trance, but Padme had gone, leaving him stared blankly into the air.

He gently rocked the unconscious woman, checked her pulse, and was glad that he didn't lose her again.

"Ahsoka?"

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AN: Congratulations! At least you have finished reading this chapter-my sister could not even go through a half of it. I don't know when I will update next time. It depends on the reaction you guys have to this chapter.


	5. Chapter 5

AN:I know it has been a long time since I the last time I updated. I am really sorry for that. This school year is a lot busier than I had ever expected. AP are annoying, SAT too. I have been preparing for the SAT reasoning test for the last 2 months, so things got really messed up and I had little time writing stuffs. Anyway I finally completed this chapter. I hope you may enjoy this！

Cold water numbed her nerves, keeping her away from knowing where she was now. Ahsoka sat on the tiled floor of the bathroom, staring blankly at the ceiling. Mingled with her tears, water poured down from her shoulders, stroking her quivering back.

Why was he doing that to her? She did nothing wrong to him-she just wanted to do something for him, as a compensation for her wrongs, but he didn't even bother to trust her. He took love as a curse, took affection as a lie, took revenge and violence as pleasure, and took her as his asset. Anakin was dead, she found no trace of him in that humanoid monster. Now she was trapped in this ugly castle, and that man, that monstrous beast in form of her beloved master, would continue to humiliate and torture her.

Why didn't he just kill her? One grip and her despicable life would forever come to a closure. Thinking that he might keep her in this hellhole and do whatever he liked to her made her scream. She wouldn't bear going though those ordeals again, it was a chronic homicide. It was either dying right now or slowly perishing with extreme anguish and shame.

She definitely preferred the first one.

Ahsoka stepped out the bath with water still dripping down her body. If he was too generous to end her life, she would do it herself.

At the basin, she looked into the mirror and saw that haggard Torguta woman with bruise all over her body. Never did she expect that she could one day turn so weak and vulnerable that she was forced to suicide. She stuck her palm to the smooth surface and used the force to press it. The glass instantly cracked and shattered, dismembered in several pieces.

She picked up the one with the sharpest edge, weighed it in her hands, and carefully pointed its tip to her wrist. Promise me it would be painless. She shut her eyes and began to move the fragment of glass.

But a huge bang jolted her when she just slit her skin. Vader stormed into the bathroom with a breathing mask that only exposed his eyes. He was holding something in his arms.

"What are you doing!" He threw that thing on the ground and tried to seize the piece of glass away from her. He clutched both of her arms and forced her to drop down the fragment.

The skin contact he imposed on her again evoked her terrible nightmare. "Don't touch me!" She screamed and attempted to wiggle her body away from his grip.

Blood streamed down her wound, staining Vader's suit. He clasped her wrist to stop further bleeding. She kept yelling and struggling, but no matter what she did, Vader didn't slacken the grip on her hands a bit.

He finally let her go when the med droids rushed into the bathroom.

"Why can't you just let me die?" She cried when the droids strapped her, encased her wrist in bandage, and injected whatever portions into her vein. "You are selfish!"

"Give her a double tranquillizer injection." He ignored this question but looked away when her eyes met his.

"I brought you some…clothes." He fixed his gaze on the white robe he just dropped to the floor, not even having glance at her. "Dress yourself, and meet me at the bank. You know it's unwise to disobey me."

Ahsoka dragged her feet outside the castle but paused immediately as she saw the tall, black figure standing not far away from her.

Vader sensed her presence and gestured her to come closer. She reluctantly approached him, noticing that he had put on his whole armor.

"Look at those fiery liquid," He muttered when he watched the blazing lava flowing past the bank, "They can melt flesh as fast as snow thaws in fire."

"Ahoska," For the first time he called her name, "Have you ever wondered why I am now in this shape, why I am now imprisoned in this cumbersome armor?"

"The rebels?"

"No," He issued a sarcastic laugh, "It was Obi-Wan Kenobi."

For an instant, everything in this universe went insignificant for her. The name reminded her of someone she truly respected, someone she entrusted Anakin to, someone she regarded as her another master. How could it be? How could he do that to his own padawan?

"Yes, he did that to me, right here." He rattled on, voice rising with anger. "He sliced off all of my limbs and left me dying on the shore, watching fire eating away everything I had, my skin, my flesh, just everything you saw in Anakin, Padme, and you."

He turned around and faced her. Agitated, trembling voice emitted from his mask. "Haven't I lost you forever, Ahsoka? Is there any way you want to follow a monster?" Yes, she didn't want to. Her eyes betrayed her thought. Vader, who had been staring at her, sighed in despair.

"Well then, I have something to return to you." He took out something from his cape and showed them to her.

They were her two lightsabers. She looked at him in shock. Why did he even bother to return her weapons?

"Your shuttle is there too, right behind us." He pointed his head to the spacecraft parked only a few feet away from them. "Take them, and leave as how you come here."

He must be fooling her, like teasing a desperate caged bird. Never on earth he could easily let her go, since instinct told her that he was not having enough of her, that she was not yet completely depleted for him.

They stared at each other for a long time, trapped in unbearable heat while hearing lava dashing off the shore. She expected that he would again scold, strike, and humiliate her at the very next second, but he only stood still and looked at her through his uncanny mask.

Eventually Ahsoka decided to break this dilemma herself. She tentatively reached out for her lightsabers, but was interrupted.

"Wait."

Now she came to realize that he had been gripping something in another hand. Vader stretched out his another palm and unfurled his finger.

"Take this away too."

A sharp intake of breath seized her. Right in that gloved palm, was a small string of faded silka bead.

Her padawan braid.

"Forget about me, about your master. Let us forget each other forever. I wish we have never met each other in our torturous lives, but the force doesn't think so. Leave, now, you still have a chance."

"You still keep them." She was choking with tears.

"Anakin had been keeping them in his dorm before everything happened. He still vainly hoped that you might return." He smiled bitterly through his mask, "Time proves he was a fool, a naïve fool."

She was struck with pain. She would imagine how Anakin looked dismally into the infinite throngs of people in Corsuant through the window in his dorm, searching for her, day by day, waiting. But never did she return, never did she even accept him again. She was failing him over and over. If she was to leave right now, what made her different than Obi-Wan, a cruel liar who abandoned and hurt Anakin while claiming that he loved him?

Ahsoka laid her fingers in his palm. She would feel him trembling when she picked up the string of bead. No, both of them couldn't permanently tear their mind from those memory, both of them couldn't easily let each other go, their bond was doomed to haunt them for every day and night, no matter how excruciating and shameful it was. It was way too painful to completely wipe out that charismatic Jedi and that snippy Torguta girl from their mind.

"No." She whispered, "I don't need them."

"What?"

"Anything but this." She pressed her padawan braid hard against his hand, "Please, do me a favor."

He looked at her with bewilderment. What did she want?

"Put this on for me. After then, I am yours."

It took him a long time to digest what she said. He clasped her hand along with her padawan braid hard in disbelief.

"Are you sure?"

She nodded her head. Her eyes, with utmost serenity and sincerity, penetrated his mask and touched the bottom of his heart.

He put an arm around her waist and slowly spun her around. Stroking her montral, he figured out where the mental plate was.

For an instant, Ahsoka felt everything flow pass her. Her alliance, her friends, her dignity, and her pursuit of justice, dissolved through her soul, swallowed by the fire that prevailed right a few inches before her. The attachment sent a thrill along her spine. Now, it was for real, now he was going to chained her forever to his side.

"Master." She whispered to him, just like what she did a long time ago. But instead of an apprentice calling to her tender mentor, she was now a slave manifesting her obedience to her owner.

Vader responded by holding her even tighter, as if he was afraid that she would cheat him and sneak away at any time. She was not going to leave him, cuz she was now his, he could control her and do whatever he liked.

But feeling the snug and vulnerable flesh in his arms, he was struck with fear of hurting her, the possibility of which was so high that he wouldn't tear his mind away from it. When he saw the bruised and whining woman in the bathroom, he knew how dangerous he was to her, how frightening likely that he would be the next Obi-Wan, torturing his own apprentice to almost the point of death.

They had to leave this place, this origin of sin and hatred, where his dreadful memory made him constantly lose his mind and turn horribly aggressive. It was beyond his imagination that how many more sinister torment he would impose on her under if he chose to keep her in this wicked planet. He was not going to let the curse fall onto her too.

Ahoska tensed as Vader loosened his grip on her and his emotion withdrew back into obscurity and sternness. She wondered what was the next thing he would do at start of his possession of her.

"Ahsoka."

"Yes, master."

"Say farewell to your past, just like what I did."

She felt his thought intrude into hers, darkness and pain loomed over her memory, rending it so completely that every part of her memory in the rebels was stained with shame and guilt, every friendly and cordial faces turned hideous and hostile, yet she was unable to make any protest to his sovereignty.

"How do you feel, Fulcrum Tano?" He said with contempt.

Shame rushed up her mind so quickly that she instantly snapped back in fury and rejection. "Don't call me like that!"

Her reaction brought a smile to his lips. Her loyalty was something he wouldn't need to worry about. "Good, very good." He whispered with content, "I guess you are well-prepared. Now, come with me."

Ahsoka thought Vader would lead her back to the castle. But instead, he went straight to the hangar, where his personal shuttle was parked.

"We are leaving." He announced solemnly to her, who stood looking up at him in astonishment.

"Where?"

"I have planned it for a long time. Somewhere distant, but absolutely safe for both you and I." Vader said as he stepped onto the ramp, "Are you coming with me?"

"Of course." She stammered a bit but still grasped his out-stretched hand. He retrieved the boarding ramp as soon as she entered the shuttle. There was no return for her.

She reluctantly took a seat beside him in the cockpit. Through peeking at the coordinator he inputted, she knew that they were heading to a system that she had never been to, a planet that was hardly under the control of the empire.

How long had it been since that last time they sat in the same cockpit? She used to joke around and mock him for his driving skills. Anakin Skywalker, the best pilot in the temple, can't even make a smooth landing and always blames everything on the ship. They used to do everything together, from making plans at the hologram pod to fixing damaged machines, but now, in spite of being only a few inches away from her, he seemed unreachable and strange. The only thing she could do now was temporary stealing glance at him, wondering what he was thinking under that mask.

It had been days since the last time she really had some sleep, so she soon dozed off. Vader smiled with bitterness when he saw her curled up in sleep. Obviously she had no idea what was waiting for her.

When Ahsoka regained her consciousness, she found herself laying on a bed in a well-decorated bedroom. It was a normal chamber that people could find it no difference between that of a common household in Corsuant. She could hear birds singing outside the window, and the whole room was filled with warm light.

Where was him? She began to panic since she couldn't sense his presence. She stumbled off the bed, and walked out of the room to find him.

Ahoska started to figure out the structure of the house as she passed through the empty hallway but found Vader in vain. It was nothing more than a common two-stories house equipped with decent furniture and sufficient provision. She found clothes in the closet, all women garments that had a size smaller than hers. She found food that was impossible for Vader to eat in the kitchen. All those items bewildered her. It was definitely not a place for Darth Vader, not for that indifferent Sith Lord serving the Empire, but for a couple.

Where was him then? Would it be possible that he just abandoned her in this planet and left? Fear somehow crept over her. It was impossible; he would never so easily let her go. She accelerated her pace, wandering in the house with scrutiny, trying to find even a trace of him.

She paused before a locked door with a fingerprint door lock behind the stairs at the first floor. She tentatively tried her own finger, and it worked, the door bang opened. Freezing wind instantly blew over her face. Inside the pitch-dark entrance, there was a set of concrete steps descending down to the basement.

Now she could sense him. The deeper she was into the underground, the more she would feel those emotions that permeated in the cold and misty basement. Hatred, anger, those things lead her to him.

The only light she could see in the cellar was from a huge glowing bacta tank in the center of the basement, where an assembly of the most advanced medic devices in the galaxy was settled. It occurred to her that Vader probably had to rely on those apparatuses to survive.

"A good place, isn't it?" His abrupt voice frightened her. She wouldn't clearly see him in the dark, but that pair of blazing amber eyes illuminated by the faint light in the bacta tank caught hers, and she wouldn't tear her eyes away from them.

"What is it for? I mean…this house."

"That is a dumb question." The shadow ensconced besides the bacta tank sneered, "What's Jedi Temple for those Jedi?"

"But those clothes in the closet…It just doesn't seem to be yours…"

"You have gone through this house quite throughout, don't you?" He tapped the tank besides him with a light laughter, "That's…em…I would put it in this way, part of my sick proclivity, an unfinished illusion."

"What do you mean?"

"I have built this house for years, and I come here whenever I have time. I spend hours imagining…imagining what if nothing ever happened, if she is still…" He broke off, choking between words.

"Is it about Padme?"

"Yes." He said with a trembling voice, "If we have never been separated, if we live freely as husband and wife. A life I never have an access to until now. Those fantasies, is part of the reason why I brought you here."

"But I can never replace her, Vader." She gently whispered to him as she approached him.

"Neither she can replace you." He began to stroke her cheek, tracing her facial marking. "I am not asking you to be her, Ahoska. You are unique."

"What do you want from me then?"

"Help me, please." He clasped her to his breast; his hand played with her braid. "I want nothing more than keeping you besides me. I need you."

This time she made no protest. She silently surrendered to him, tolerating whatever touch he made to her. She had no idea why she turned so submissive, why she could be so touched by his fake words. Just wait, Ahoska, a few more hours and he would again be the monster who tortures you. But she just let him took her to a room, where she was suffocated by the rich, highly pressurized oxygen, where he eventually took off his breathing mask and kissed her.

He suddenly awaked from a nightmare, the content of which he had forgotten as soon as he opened his eyes, but chill still crept over his body, bringing up sweat to his skins.

Vader viewed the aftermath of the previous night. Ahsoka laid unconsciously besides him, either because she fell asleep or fainted due to the over-rich oxygen. Her naked body subsided serenely in the bed, pale under the moonlight. He put a hand over her chest, feeling the weak back and forth movement, and stable heartbeat. She was alive, right with him; it always relieved him to know that he was not alone, at least not for now.

He decided to leave now. The nightmare he just had stirred him to panic. It had been days since the last time he contacted any imperial agency. Hopefully general Tarkin was not suspicious of his disappearance and reported it to the Emperor. He didn't want to attract any extra attention from the Empire to this planet, especially when she was here. All he knew was that he would not lose her again.

Before he resumed his mask, he kissed her gently on her forehead, savoring her scent.

"Don't leave me, please." He uttered so quietly that it was barely a whisper, "You are all I have now."

She responded with a vague mumble and a little wince on her face. He came to realize he was disturbing her in her sleep. "You are beautiful." Don't know why his lips formed a rare smile when he whispered those words. She had been aging with distress and lassitude. Her skin was in no way similar to that of the Torguta teenage girl, yet maturity refined her beauty, and she looked even more attractive. He was absent during her transition from a rebellious girl to a steady woman, which was definitely hard for girl completely on her own. He didn't want to miss more time with her. He, with a futile hope, wished that they could age together.

With a sigh, he left the room after turning off the pressure treater. In the infirmary, the medics reinstalled his armor for him. He was going back into reality, again shrunk into the form of the Sith Lord.

Darth Vader strode out the entrance of the basement. In the hangar not far away from the yard, an imperial shuttle was waiting for him. When he settled down in the cockpit, he set his destination as the Executor, and began to contact General Tarkin.


End file.
